We are living in a day where brilliant men with incredible intellects and stunning credentials are making dogmatic assertions that the creation account in the Bible is nothing but a myth. The irony is that these men are doing the very thing that the devil did in that creation account: questioning, denying, and casting aside the Word of God.
I’d like you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. Yes, I know. I have not forgotten the book of Ephesians. Do you know, as we were coming through Ephesians, as I’ve been preaching through it, I’ve been memorizing the book. I was working on memorizing it before I was preaching it. I got almost to the end, but it’s like a lot of the things, you forget. And then I went to preaching it. And I thought, “Okay, I’m going to refresh myself on this.” And in memorizing the book of Ephesians, there is one place – I guess it jumps out at me repeatedly as I crossed those words – that I just find it interesting. Paul is talking about his own ministry. And he is saying that basically this has been entrusted to him, this ministry. And he says, “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery, hidden for ages in God.” Okay. That all makes sense to me. Do you know he tags this little modifier on the end, “God, who created all things.” That always just jumped out at me. And the reason it does – one of the things that happens when you memorize a book is, you begin to see the nuances, and you begin to see how the thought really is interwoven, and the case that’s been made. It’s interesting to me that God, (Paul wants us to know), is the God who created all things.
Reminders Throughout Scripture of God as Creator
And the thing is, if you look immediately for any reason that that ought to be included, you don’t really see a reason for it. It’s almost like that’s just how Paul wanted to describe this God to us. So subtle. So simple. It almost seems irrelevant to what Paul is saying right at that point. But if you really start to mark just how often in Scripture that the authors want us to know that God is the Creator, it’s found in a lot of places. It’s not like God just created in the book of Genesis and then He kind of gets forgotten. That’s not the case. We are reminded of this again, and again, and again, and again.
Now, I want us to think about these early chapters of Genesis, where God creates, where man is tempted and falls. We may be here for a month or three. Let’s see what happens. A whole number of things. Anyway, you guys, some of you, you may know about– Well, I was just thinking recently about Richard Dawkins, because I came home and my daughter, Joy, was watching something she got– she went up to some homeschool deal that Living Waters was putting on and Voddie Baucham was at. That was when Voddie was there, preaching for our brother in Austin. My daughter picked up this video, and she was watching it – Ray Comfort, Genesis. And she was watching that, but then she also pulled up one off of YouTube called The Banana Man. It’s basically a video about how the atheists are just mocking Ray Comfort; about how Ray Comfort is basically using all of these mileage that the atheists are giving to him. Anyway, it had me thinking about Richard Dawkins. And maybe like me, some of you have watched that video that was put out sometime ago called Expelled. Ben Stein. He’s not even a professing Christian, to the best of my knowledge. He’s a Jew.
Richard Dawkins
And he interviewed Richard Dawkins. Who is Dawkins? Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist. And what’s interesting is, when he was interviewing him, now listen, Dawkins basically says, “Genesis – primitive superstitions. That’s all it is.” He says, “The Hebrew God of the Old Testament, very unpleasant prospect that such a God exists. The creation account we see is just superstition, primitive superstitions.” But the thing is, Stein, he presses the point that Dawkins explain how life began. And you know what Dawkins said? He has no idea. He’s an evolutionary biologist. He has no idea how life started. None. He can call these things primitive superstitions, but when asked, “Okay. Explain,” he has no idea how it happened. No idea whatsoever. Stein asked, “Then how did the heavens and earth get created?” Dawkins says this – classic answer – “By a very slow process.” Isn’t that always convenient? That’s so often the response, “It’s slow. Just give it enough time and life is going to spring forth. Heavens and earth are going to spring forth.” And he even mentioned that it could possibly have come from aliens. And Stein just looks at him like he’s willing to admit intelligent design may actually be involved. But could it be God? “It isn’t God. It can’t be God.” Why? Just because he dogmatically asserts it. “It can’t be that! Primitive superstition is all that is. I can’t explain how it happened, but I know for certain it didn’t happen that way.”
Carl Sagan
Basically, what I want to deal with is dogmatic assertions. We are surrounded by that today. Let me tell you another account. I’ve seen this fairly recently. R.C. Sproul, maybe you know this, R.C. Sproul knew Carl Sagan before he died. Both of these guys had intellects that went through the roof. I can just imagine these guys talking. I’ll give you just a snapshot into their discussions. Now, Sagan, he basically thought this, “There’s a hard truth. The hard truth is that all these happened by accident, which means we’re meaningless, we came from slime. Lightning hit it or something. And this whole thing about God is just a myth. All myth.” He called it a reassuring fable, over against the hard truth.
Sagan, the guy was considered a genius, an astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist. R.C. Sproul, talking with this guy, he says, “It’s all a myth. It’s just a reassuring fable.” And Sproul asked him, listen to this. Sproul talking to Sagan about the Big Bang. He says, “I was in a conversation with Carl Sagan. I asked him a simple question. If all of matter and energy were compressed into this infinitesimal point of singularity,” which is basically the Big Bang theory, that all mass, all energy, was compressed down into this little dot. He says, “If it was in that state forever, a state of organization, a state of constant inertia for eternity, then why was it that on one Thursday afternoon at 3 o’clock, the whole thing blew up and exploded into our present universe?” He says, “For the most fundamental definition of inertia is bodies that are at rest tend to remain at rest unless they’re acted upon by an outside force.” And Sproul asked him, “What was the outside force?”
His simple and profound answer was, “I don’t want to go there.” Sproul asked, “How can you be a scientist and stop because you want to stop, instead of pushing for the truth?” You know what? Their theories violate science. You know what science is? You know what the scientific method is? It’s to observe. It is to watch what happens. It is to observe how the whole creation behaves. You know what? What Sproul is saying to Sagan is, “You are basically saying this thing began contrary to the laws of physics.” And he says, “I don’t want to go there.” Because he knows he has no answer. You see, just dogmatic assertion, “Well, this whole thing is a reassuring fable.” Oh yeah? Well, then explain it to us. Give us some facts to convince us it’s a fable. But you see, when the facts were actually put on the table, these guys, Dawkins, Sagan, what happens? They break down. “Well, it may have been aliens.” They sound like idiots when they are pressed. You see, they go through life and they make these dogmatic assertions, “It’s myth. It can’t happen. There is no God. Genesis, those early chapters, the first three chapters, the first eleven chapters, it’s all myth. It’s all fable.”
I came home, like I said, and Joy has this video on. One of the guys, I believe it’s one of the men who works with Ken Ham in Answers in Genesis. He said he was debating the president of an atheist society at one of the universities in our country. And he said, Mr. Atheist over here, they’re up on the stage, they’re at their respective podiums, they’re having this debate. And the guy is basically trying to make the Christian out to be a fool. Like, there is so much evidence that we evolved from apes. Again, one of these dogmatic assertions. You just say it, “We came from apes!”
And you know what the Christian did, what all of us need to do? We need to ask for proof. He said, “Prove it.” He said, “The fossil record is full of many examples of missing links.” The Christian said, “You say there’s many? Just give me one.” And the guy kinda stumbled and stammered, and he came up with one, but it’s one that’s already been debunked. And in the end, the guy over here, all authoritatively, all dogmatically, “We evolved from apes!” But you know what? When he’s pressed, not a single example is he able to bring up. Just, brethren, evolutionary propaganda. You make these dogmatic assertions, and you make them loud enough and long enough, and they expect us to just lay down and say, “Yeah. I guess we can’t really give credibility to the first three chapters of Genesis.”
Andy Stanley
I got this in the mail, my home mailbox: Reclaiming Irresistible, Andy Stanley. He sends this to me. He’s going to be in our area. You know what it says here? It says, “He’s considered one of the most influential pastors in America.” Do you know why he’s coming to our area very soon? Let me tell you why. And you can search this out. He wants to tell us this: he wants to tell us that when science and religion conflict, at the end of the day, if we’re honest, science wins. He is on this agenda to basically say, “You know what? Genesis is a stumbling block. Christianity was never based on Scripture. Christianity was never based on the infallibility of Scripture. Christianity is based on Jesus Christ. Christianity is based on the person of Jesus Christ. Christianity is based on the resurrection of Christ. Christianity is not based on the infallibility of Scripture.” And he says, “You know what? Science has contradicted Genesis, and Genesis has become a stumbling block.” And he is making the case that even James and Peter and Paul all try to separate New Testament Christianity from Old Testament Scriptures.
He specifically calls the Genesis account a myth. This is supposed to be one of the most popular and influential pastors in the US. I understand, what, 40,000 members in his church. He is putting this garbage in my mailbox. You know what? He’s heard the myth propaganda enough that he is actually falling for it. And he believes this: he believes all that we really need to be telling people is about the love of Jesus, we don’t need Genesis, we don’t need the Old Testament, that Christianity is never based on that, to start with. The foundation of faith is not Scripture. The foundation of faith is not the infallibility of the Bible. The foundation of faith is something that happened in history. The issue is, who is Jesus?
And I go to the New Testament Scriptures, and I find that they’re quoting the Old Testament all the time. And I find that they are referring to what happened in the early chapters of Genesis on a regular basis as though it is infallible, it is God-spoken, it is real history. That is what I find in Scripture. What I find in Scripture is that when I go to Hebrews, I find that the very heart and soul of what faith is, is that by faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
Dogmatic assertions. They come from science. They’re coming from so-called pastors. This guy is a false prophet. Say it as it is. You begin to deny the authority of Scripture, and there is no stopping it. If you say Christianity is not built on the infallibility of Scripture, but it is built on the resurrection, where are you defining what the resurrection is? It comes from this infallible book. There is no explanation and there is no definition for what happened in history aside from this. This is infallible. Men’s history books are not infallible. God has promised that the heaven and the earth will pass away, but His Word will not pass away. He has promised to preserve it. He didn’t promise to preserve Josephus. He promised to preserve this. And to say that Paul, that Peter, that James came along and tried to separate the Old Testament scriptures from New Testament Christianity, is a lie. It is a downright, bold-faced lie. And just because guys like this with lots of popularity say it, doesn’t make it true. No more than it makes what Sagan said true, or Dawkins says is true, or the atheists say is true, or the mass of scientists say. The reality is this: they make these assertions. No proof. They just say it enough, and what? Okay, because you said it, because Andy Stanley said it, well, let’s just tear it right out.
Brethren, just recently when Geoffrey Thomas was here, he and I were sitting at my table, and we got talking about Jesus Christ creating. I mean, something of what happened when he stood up here and preached on Jairus’s daughter happened there at the table. There was a majesty. There was a glory as we were thinking about Christ as the Creator. Christ creating instantaneously and supernaturally, much like His miracles.
Here comes Andy Stanley, “It’s a myth! It’s not to be believed! We just need to tell people how much Jesus loves them and be done with this great mass of stumbling block to the faith that’s called the Old Testament, especially those early chapters of Genesis.” Now, look at Genesis 3. I’m going to tell you what we find here. We don’t find myth. We don’t find something that’s out of date. We don’t find something that the apostles try to cut Christianity off from. What you find in these early chapters of Genesis is the most up-to-date, the most relevant.
The Craftiness of the Serpent
Listen: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say,'” Yea, hath God said? Isn’t that so like Dawkins and Stanley? You just say it. You just call it into question, “Has God said? You won’t die.” You just say it. There’s no proof. You just say it. That’s exactly what they’re doing. This is so relevant. This is so spot on. You just say something. “You won’t die.” I mean, I am shocked everytime I read this. I scratch my head at Eve and then Adam. It’s like, seriously? They bought into this serpent? He just said, “You’re not going to die. Did God actually say? Indeed! Has God said?” I mean, you know what? The very chapters of Scripture that they’re saying are myth show us the very serpent himself doing exactly the same thing – calling into question what God has said.
“Did God actually say you should not eat of any tree in the garden?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.” The serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Spot on. It’s not like we need to shake off the musty, out-of-date, irrelevant, early pages of Genesis. Genesis is fresh and real. And you know what? It records for us actual history. This is something that literally did happen. It starts with God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” It describes man as he really is. It shows us that man is not merely an evolving animal. He is a special creation of God, made in the image of God. Not made in the image of apes. Not evolved from slime in some mud pit somewhere. He is a special creation, given the oversight of God’s creation. And it tells us how man fell, how Satan came in, how evil came in. It tells us how God in infinite love made a promise, right from the very beginning. How He has intervened. How He has given a plan to rescue man. That’s what’s here. But you know what we find? We find men and women all over this world who go right on repeating the action of the devil. That’s what’s happening.
Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Andy Stanley, present modern scientific world, that’s exactly what they’re doing. We find them doing exactly what we find back there in Genesis 3. They go on repeating the same thing. They use their mouth, just like he did, just like the serpent, to say something, to make this assertion, to make this pronouncement. Let’s think. We find Adam and Eve hiding. I mean, you can imagine that. The Lord is walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Now what does that look like? What did He look like? He walked. Adam and Eve, where are they? They’re hiding. They recognized something. Their teeth sank into that fruit, and their eyes were open. They recognize they’re naked. For the first time, they felt the sense they have to be covered. And they were looking to hide, get in among the leaves. I mean, it’s like, who is going to see them anyways? The animals? But suddenly, they’re just covered with shame they got to get away. It’s not like there’s crowds of people but the Lord Himself. They’re naked. They’re not knowing what to do with themselves.
You find mankind cursed. You find the sweat of his brow, you see that there’s thorns or there are briers. There’s thistles, there’s labor pains, there’s sweat on his brow, there’s death. We find cemeteries now, and there’s sorrow, there’s misery, there’s murder, there’s sin. You can imagine Adam and Eve, when Abel has been killed, they got his body. What are they going to do? I mean, there they are in that condition. The question is this: How did they ever get into that state? Because what we remember is this: They weren’t always like that. They’d been in paradise. That’s the reality. There was a garden in Eden. They’d been naked, they weren’t ashamed. Everything seemed to be in harmony. Everything seemed to be happy. They walked and talked with the Lord. It seems like this was a regular thing the Lord did. He came in the cool of the day, walking there in the garden. Can you imagine that? We don’t know how much time went by from the time they were created to the time the fall happened. But you can imagine a paradise. I mean, just imagine some of the most beautiful places in this cursed world, and they’re in a paradise, they’re in a garden. There’s the Lord, you’re walking with Him, perfect communion, no sin has entered in.
What happened? What produced this tremendous change? And we know the answer to this. This is the great truth that Paul developed in Romans 5 verse 12 and following. What? You have Adam. And Adam sinned. And in Adam’s sin, all have sinned. And in Adam’s condemnation, all are condemned. In his death, we all die. He is a representative and federal head. That’s the great truth that is developed. This has catapulted the whole human race into death and judgment and condemnation. How did we get like this? We die! We’ve had funerals in this place. There’s been caskets here and over there. Why? Where did it come from? What went wrong? I mean, these people that believe in evolution, show us some indication that we’re evolving. Wouldn’t it seem like we’d start living forever and longer and more and more? Wouldn’t we evolve into that? How does death even get thrown in here? Why would death even have to happen at all? I mean, if life spontaneously generated, why would it ever come to an end? We just accept that. But here is the answer. We’ve got the answers to everything.
Sin. You don’t look around at mankind and say, “Man is good. This is all a fable.” I mean, the reality is that these evolutionists and these scientists, where does death come from? Where does sin come from? Where does your conscience come from? Thistles? How does a thistle, how does prickers and briers, where did that come from? You ever step on a good sandberg? I remember, Trevor Johnson had those things stuck all on the bottom of his feet and he just wiped them like he was wiping the sweat off his brow. He must have leather feet. But where do they come from? I mean, did that just evolve? Did the plant just say, “Well, I’m going to put prickers on myself so that I can tear a flesh?” Yeah, that just evolved?
But we have the answers for all these things here. This is the most basic explanation that can be given as to why the world is as the world is, and why every single individual is as they are. Why? Because the man and the woman listened to the devil. He said, “Did God actually say?” That is, “Do you really believe that? Are you really being bound by that? Did God actually say you should not eat of any tree in the garden?” You can hear the sneer in his voice. You can’t hardly say it without some tone. His whole ploy and strategy comes out at once. He has come to do nothing less than attack what God has said. I mean, in the very first words he speaks, it’s just as if he’s saying to them, “O you poor simpletons. You couldn’t possibly really believe that, do you?” And then it came, that dogmatic assertion: “You’re not going to die.” The astounding thing is this: What led our first parents to rebel against God and eat that prohibited fruit was on the strength of one dogmatic assertion. That’s it. That’s all that was behind their disobedience and their fall. Nothing else whatsoever.
“You will not surely die.” I have often pondered that. You know what happens? The devil gives no reasons. He gives no proofs, no convincing arguments. He simply asserts it. “You’re not going to die, and that’s all there is to it. I say so.” They listened. I mean, have you ever noticed this? Listen. Consider this: If I’m right, we know that the Lord talked. They knew the Lord. The Lord talked to Adam. He told him not to eat of that tree. There’s every indication He came walking around there in the cool of the day. They knew the Lord. When the devil began to dialogue with Eve, she knew about the Lord. This God, who created this paradise and put them in there, had told them, “You can eat of all the trees, but just not that one right there. That’s off limits.” God told them not to eat it. He told them that if they ate it they would die. He gave them a whole garden to eat from, except this one exception. They were in paradise. They had it all. Paradise. Everything was good. And here comes the devil, here comes the serpent. The serpent was more crafty, cunning. ” Be wise as serpents,” the Lord said.
I don’t know, the demons went into the pigs. Satan somehow came into this thing called the serpent. You can prove beyond any shadow of a doubt, it’s a snake. Apparently, before Genesis 3:14, perhaps, this thing had legs or actually was able to travel around upright. The curse brought it to its belly. But here he comes. Here comes the devil. He just says it. “Indeed, has God said? Look here. You’re not going to certainly die.” And you know what they don’t say? “Hey. Wait a second. The Lord God, we know. We don’t know you. He’s done many kind things. We walk with Him. We’ve talked with Him. I mean, this is a beautiful place. We trust Him. Him, we know. We don’t know you. Who are you? Where did you come from? Wait a second! You better give us some kind of proof that this is true. I mean, afterall, God said, in the day we eat thereof we will surely die. This is a life-and-death situation. You think you’re just going to say we won’t surely die, and I’m going to casually walk over and pick a fruit and eat it? We’ve got another thing coming. You better give me a whole lot more proof and convincing arguments. You better show me that you come with some kind of authority, and that I won’t certainly die if I do this. You better be able to show us convincingly. Why should we believe you?”
Isn’t that interesting none of that happened? That they didn’t say, “Who are you? Where did you come from? I mean, what are you? I mean, do all the snakes go around meeting, talking? Isn’t there something a little odd about this?” I mean, do you ever think about that? It’s like, I do. By what authority are you saying this? There’s none of that. Here comes the serpent. He shows up there in the garden. And they ate of that fruit for one reason: simply on the strength of this bold assertion. He just pronounced it. “No, you won’t die. You’ll be okay.” No proof to substantiate they wouldn’t die. And you know what the fact is? They did die. And you know what the reality is? We are surrounded by this today. We are so surrounded by this, that supposed evangelicals are saying, “Man, I guess we just got to settle it. We’re idiots if we believe the first three chapters. In fact, this has become such a stumbling block we better separate this from Christianity or we’re not going to get anybody to come to Christ.” That’s basically what Andy Stanley is doing. He thinks he is helping people. I mean, that’s how he sets it forth. “We’ve got to deliver people from this stumbling block of Genesis.” Why? Just because Andy Stanley you say it, that just makes it so? That sounds awful devilish. You better give me some proof. I mean, what I find is that in this Word is life. What I find is those who tremble at this Word, those are the ones God looks at. What I find is this Word better abide in you or you’re not truly His disciple.
Oh yeah, Andy Stanley, you’re going to come along and try to rip out of my hand… you’re just going to say it? You want me to sink my teeth into that fruit just like back at the beginning, just because you say it? What proof do you have? Just go on repeating. It just repeats itself. They’re doing just what the devil did in the beginning. Richard Dawkins says, “Oh, the thing is primitive superstition.” Andy Stanley shows us that this is a myth. And they’re saying the same thing: “Yea, hath God said?” They’re just calling it all into question. They’re saying God never said that. “There is no God,” according to Dawkins. Just dogmatic assertions. The whole position, the whole worldview of these people is based on nothing else than these bold assertions. And you can listen to it everywhere. You go on the internet. You go on YouTube. You go on the radio. Everybody making bold assertions about God. Everybody making bold assertions about science. Everybody making these bold assertions about where everything came from.
And you know what I understand is, in the scientific world, the biologists believe that the astronomers have the answers to it. The astronomers think that the geologists have the answers to it. And they think the paleontologists have… You see, everybody else, they have become convinced. You got the microbiologist out there and they’re looking at the DNA and they’re saying, “This didn’t happen by accident.” It’s in the fossil record. These guys over here, these guys that are digging up the ground, they’re the ones that are to prove that there’s this missing link. Well, these guys know that there’s no missing link and they’re saying, “Well, somebody else has the answer.” That’s how science is working. All the time, they’re all making their bold assertions.
The greatest hoax in the world is evolution, folks. There’s nothing to substantiate it. There is no factual basis for it. There’s no missing link that’s been found. It doesn’t exist. And in fact, what the microbiologists found out is they stare at the RNA and the DNA, they’re saying, “This did not happen by accident. There’s way too much information here. It’s impossible that this happened by accident.” You know that’s what they’re saying. And yet, Andy Stanley, supposed to be the representative evangelical comes along and says, “Well, when religion and science are in conflict, we got to go with science. I mean, you’re an idiot otherwise.” And those kind of bold assertions just get said. “You’re a Christian, you actually believe that?” It gets said enough times. “Well, you’re an idiot if you believe that.” Yeah, well, you talk just like the devil did back there in Genesis 3. You just make your statements.
What Does Science Prove?
People say, “But science proves…” But does science prove? Are you so certain? They say, “Oh, but nobody in the scientific community believes that. Nobody with any intellect believes that. No one who’s sensible, nobody with learning, nobody that has gone to reputable institutions of learning believes that.” And because somebody makes such an assertion, you know what? I’m expected to turn my back on the whole thing. Well, you say that. How easy is it to write a science book? It’s very easy. How easy is it to put a picture of basically a little ape progressively becoming a man? Anybody can dream that up. Show us the proof. There isn’t any. It’s all been debunked. Neanderthal, —–, it’s all been debunked. Lucy is a chimp. It’s all debunked. It doesn’t exist. But you got these people making these bold, bombastic claims. Joshua comes home from college courses, and he’s got professors and fellow students, they just make all these really bold assertions. And Joshua is wise enough to see they don’t have a bit of proof to backup any of it. You just say it. That’s mankind today. Just full of their dogmatic assertions, walking around. And you know what it all leads to? The Bible is no longer the authority. That’s the real issue. Men and women, they just forget God altogether and they substitute their own opinions.
It’s all this is. It’s just man wanting to be devilish and devil-like and just voice his opinion, voice his statements, bombastic claims. The Bible is no longer the authority, we no longer listen to God. That’s the real issue. We listen to human beings, and they’ll just say everything. And remember, all the human beings in this world that aren’t Christians, they’re in the power of the evil one, the very one that spoke back there in Genesis 3, being influenced in all their words. You can just hear his serpentine voice in the things that people say. I mean, I don’t know how the devil showed up there. The serpent was more cunning. He chose the animal to possess, if that’s what happened. It’s interesting that the devil went into the serpent and the serpent got punished through the curse. And even when you go in the book of Revelation, he’s called that ancient serpent. What was so dazzling about him? But isn’t that the way it is? Well, Richard Dawkins, he’s got all these degrees and he’s at Oxford. And Carl Sagan, I mean, the guy is an astrophysicist. We hardly know what it is. It’s so impressive. And they come along with all their impressive titles and all their impressive things behind their names, and they just make people like Ken Ham to be idiots. Like mock. “Oh, the guy built a lifesize ark.” And oh, it’s funny.
I don’t know how dazzling and how impressive the devil came along out there, but it’s the kind of thing that happens today. All their higher learning, their science, their degrees, they come dazzle us by the authority of their big names, and they’ve written all their books and their dogmatism is just like the dogmatism of Satan himself, who is some kind of shining personality, or something shone through to dazzle Eve. I don’t know what happened, but I’ll tell you this, we need to fight for this, brethren, because if you say this is myth, you basically have put man first. What Andy Stanley has basically done is it’s up to us to figure out what’s myth and what’s not myth. And as soon as you start going down that road, it’s basically man’s opinion. You throw the whole thing out. Nothing stands. How he is going to convince us that the things he believes actually have biblical authority when he is attacking biblical authority, but he resorts to history. We need to fight for this because otherwise, all scripture is fair game. And that’s what will happen. We can all decide for ourselves what’s true and what’s myth. The devil comes along and says, “Yea, hath God said?” And I’ll tell you what, God says, “Yes, I have said. I have spoke and I will preserve that word.”
Genesis is the Foundation for the New Testament
And another thing to think about. Genesis is the foundation of the New Testament. You have God making the first gospel pronouncements. And not only that, we find out as Paul unfolds for us, the fall of man is here. I mean, if you’re going to have an appropriate worldview, it all starts right here. This is the foundation of the New Testament. You think about Jesus. They come to Him and they want to know about divorce and remarriage. Where does He take them? Genesis. Paul wants to talk about this glorious doctrine of justification. Where does he take us? Back here. Paul wants to talk about male-female relations, remember with the head covering, 1 Corinthians 11. Where does he go? Back here. 1 Timothy 2, where are we taken? Back here.
Look, man was tempted here. When you come into the New Testament, you find the Son of Man himself being tempted by the serpent. There’s parallels here. The first Adam. The last Adam. And we see these parallels. We see these being talked about in scripture. It’s factual. It is the foundation upon which all these… And then like I said before, this fact that God is the Creator, it just comes at us everywhere in Scripture.
Brethren, the third thing is, this is history. This is actual narrative of the beginnings of man. This is truth. This is fact. This is why things are the way things are. This is why there’s death. This is why there’s thorns. This is why ladies, when you go into the hospital and you go near the birthing rooms, if you hear a woman cry out, it’s not a mystery where it came from. This tells us about everything. It tells us that God gave a commandment to man. This was the issue. Man asserted himself. Man rebelled. That’s what happened. Do you recognize what God did in giving that one commandment to them? What He was asserting to them was that He is the one to be obeyed. What He was asserting is that He was good. Undoubtedly. He put them in paradise and He gave them so much. But was pointing out to them that He was indeed the supreme authority. He has a right to do with His own as He chose. He gave this law, He gave this condition, He gave this demand for obedience, and they rejected that. And this is actual history. This is not a fable. This is not a fairy tale. This is something that literally did happen. The Bible presents us with a worldview, and it starts there in Genesis, and it starts with God, and it start with God creating, and God very specifically created man. He’s not an evolutionary mistake, not an evolving animal. It tells us how evil came in. It tells us how death came in. It tells us how God intervened and has provided a great way of salvation.
But then here comes this dogmatic pronouncement, unaccompanied by any proof whatsoever, and I’m expected to turn my back, abandon the whole thing. And you know what’s amazing? Those people out there, the Richard Dawkins and the Carl Sagans of this world, and the Andy Stanleys, and they make all their dogmatic pronouncements. Have you ever noticed? I’ve noticed this. Put a man in the pulpit who’s dogmatic and the world hates it. They hate it when somebody stands up and preaches from this book dogmatically, and says, “This is truth.” They say, “Oh, they’re bigoted. They’re narrow. They’re this. They’re that.” Isn’t it amazing how they’ll do it? “Oh, there’s no God, that’s primitive superstition.” But you let somebody stand in the pulpit and say, “It’s not primitive superstition. This is fact. This is God’s word. This is infallible. This is inspired. God carried along holy men, and He has His thoughts, His words, His inspired Scripture. And it’s been preserved. And we can bank our lives on it.”
Brethren, we need to think. We need to think. The Bible calls us to think. The Gospel calls us to think. I would ask you this: Prove to me there’s no God. Prove to me that God did not create the heavens and the earth and everything that is in it in six days. Prove to me that that didn’t happen. We can look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He can lay His hand on a leper and instantaneously heal him. Are you going to say He, as the Creator of this universe, can’t say with a word, “Let there be light”, and there’s light? Prove to me. What facts do you have? What proofs do you have? What can you bring forth to say that Jesus Christ didn’t go to the cross and die there and pour out his blood for the sake of sins, for the sake of the sins of sinners who are descendants of Adam and Eve, who, because of their rebellion, fell into this sinful state, are guilty by their sin and guilty through their own sins, and stand in need of a Rescuer? Salvation, under the condemnation of God. You’re going to prove to me that’s not the case? Are you going to tell me man came from apes? Show me the proof. It doesn’t exist. Are you going to tell me that God didn’t create everything in the beginning, when you’ve got the greatests minds upon the world, like Carl Sagan, and he says, “Don’t even take me back there. I don’t even want to talk about it.” Why? Because it violates every law of physics.
Are you going to tell me there was an explosion, and as everything blew apart, it all came together into forming galaxies? That is an absolute violation of… you know what it does? It violates both laws of thermodynamics. But you see, they have no problem with that. Wow, it violates all these laws. But you see, science is supposed to be that which is observable, that which is reproducible. We’ve got this idea because we’ve studied it and we see that certain laws govern it. But isn’t it amazing, all these scientists that want to tell us we should throw this book right out into the garbage, they want to tell us that the whole thing began and life sprang into existence through all sorts of laws and principles being violated through their own scientific model. Inconsistent. They’re liars. This world is full of it. That’s what Scripture tells us, men are liars. But more than that, they hate God. And that’s ultimately why they would be inconsistent, they will contradict themselves. It’s Richard Dawkins. I mean, intelligent design, “Well, it could have happened by Martians.” He didn’t say Martians, he said aliens. But isn’t it amazing, he’ll tolerate the idea that some kind of intelligence seeded life here, but it can’t be God. “Well, it could be intelligence, but it can’t be God.” Why? Just because you say it? “I’m going to throw it all out. Just because Richard Dawkins said it, it must be true. I’m going to bank my eternal soul on that.”
It’s all a hoax. That’s all it is. I know we need to be done. And I’ll just remind you of this: man is so casual. He just talks so freely. Oh, how we argue, how we debate, how we say, “Oh, I believe this and I believe…” We have such a proneness. We wanna figure God out and we just want to spew out our ideas. But I’ll tell you, there was a day Moses was trying to figure God out. There’s a bush, it’s burning and not consumed. I’m gonna go figure this out. What’s this all about? He thought he was gonna go investigate. And this is how we are. We’re just gonna go investigate God. Just like that voice came, “Moses, stand back. Moses, you better get your shoes off your feet. Do you know who I am? I am that I am. I am who I am. Stand back.” We are so flippant. We make these assertions. You ever heard how Job put forth his dogmatic assertions? “Well, if I could just have a hearing with God, this is how I’d set forth my case.” “Job, gird up your loins. You think you’ve got all the answers?” This was a godly man. “Job, you’ve been making all your dogmatic assertions? Let’s see how much you really know. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the world? Where were you when I set the boundaries for the seas? Job, are you able to take Pleiades and rope it in? Are you able to do that? Can you tell me where the foundations of the rain comes from? Can you tell me where the thunder comes from? Can you tell me about the sleet, can you tell me about the snow? Do you have answers when it comes to leviathan and behemoth? Do you know? Have you commanded the morning? Where is the way to the dwelling of the light and the snow and the rain?
And he says all these words without knowledge. Job, can you lift your voice to the clouds? Is the wild ox willing to serve you, the donkey, the mountain goat, the lion, the horse, the ostrich, behemoth, leviathan? Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars? Shall a fault-finder contend with the Almighty? Brethren, I’ll tell you this, the God who created the heavens and the earth, He is the true God, and He is fearful. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. “Moses, stand back.” “Job, are you so free with your lips?” And in the end, Job was a mess. He’s the quivering bundle of repenting in dust and ashes. This God of this Bible is everlastingly almighty in His eternality and His glory. And He is powerful. He can give a word, and universes jump into existence. He’s never faint, He’s never tired.
Brethren, you think of all the ways you and I have spoken freely or lightly or casually, just expressing our opinions. Brethren, the real issue is there’s no fear of God as there ought to be. We don’t know what we’re talking about half the time. We don’t understand God. Brethren, there comes a time when I’ll tell you, rather than saying, “Yea, hath God said,” they say, “Yes, I hear what God says. I believe what God has said. I surrender. I’m taking my shoes off. And I put my hands to my mouth. I’m gonna be careful how I speak.”
We’re in His hand, and we’re fallen. Yet, there He is. He offers rebels free, full salvation, at this very moment, in Jesus Christ. We need to give up our foolish reasoning and listen to God. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Father, I pray that the fear of God would be a reality amongst us. I pray this in Christ’s name, Amen.
